


Help Wanted

by Solena2



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Compliant, First Meetings, Gen, POV Alphys (Undertale), POV Alternating, POV Sans (Undertale), Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:52:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25754644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solena2/pseuds/Solena2
Summary: One scientist isn't enough for the whole Underground no matter how skilled she is, but that's what assistants are for.
Relationships: Alphys & Sans (Undertale)
Kudos: 25





	1. Gainful Employment

**Author's Note:**

> Alphys is really smart, but I can't see her being able to do all of the science for the entire underground, especially since there was apparently a pretty long gap between her and Gaster.  
> And her and Sans have to meet somehow, right?

Alphys was very excited about her new royal position. (The one she’d gained by lying and cheating and-) She was absolutely ecstatic to have attained her goal, even if her means had been just a bit questionable.

It was fine, right? People lied all the time. Everyone did it. Bending the truth a little to get what she wanted was nothing compared to what some people would have done. (Liar, liar, liar. Everything you have is stolen from the more deserving, if they knew they would all hate you-)  
So it was fine. She was fine. No moral crises were occurring here, thank you.

Anyway.

Alphys was very excited about her new position, but with it having gone unfilled so long, she was absolutely drowning in work. While she was able to complete engineering related requests relatively easily, she was having difficulty with the ones related to magical science, especially the more theoretical ones.

She’d always found that her genius focused most easily on the practical disciplines, the ones she could visualize in her mind’s eye. She had a unique advantage in that area, in that she was easily able to imagine the schematics in her mind, rotating and adjusting them as her will dictated.

Things that relied purely on theoretical equations and ideas, though, tended to give her difficulty. She often ended up tripping over things with them, and it was hurting her performance.

So Alphys decided to hire an assistant. Someone knowledgeable in quantum physics, preferably. 

\--

Sans wouldn’t admit it, but he was regretting moving out of his parents’ house. He’d had all sorts of reasons for it, of course. Wanting more alone time, wanting to escape his family’s nagging, wanting to get away from his brother… (He loved Papyrus, really, he did, but his sibling was overbearing at the best of times)

His biggest reason, though, was that he wanted to prove he could make it on his own. He’d always had poor health, as a consequence of his miniscule HP, and while his family had never outright said it, he could tell that they saw him as a bit of a burden.

It was perfectly reasonable, really. He was always in and out of doctor’s offices and hospitals, trying to either heal his latest minor injury or “fix” him all together. His parents had been forced to spend large sums of money just to keep him alive, and he knew it wore on them, even if they did their best to hide it.

So he’d started working odd jobs when he was fourteen, and had amassed enough savings to get his own place by his seventeenth birthday. Not too shabby, if he did say so himself.

His apartment kinda sucked, though. It was tiny and dingy and had bedbugs by the dozen. (As a skeleton, they thankfully couldn’t hurt him) So while he was proud of being able to provide for himself, he couldn’t help but wish he’d waited until he could afford a better place. Plus, Hotland friggin’ sucked. If it weren’t for his ability to conveniently bypass the (awful, terrible, horrible) vent system, he’d have come running back home with his tail between his legs within the space of a week.

...He wasn’t really certain, whether he was happy about that or not. At least the heat didn’t bother him, since he was bereft of any internal organs that might react poorly to it. As far as climate adaptability went, he was pretty lucky to be a skeleton. 

So he wasn’t really doing much with his life, in the end. Not accomplishing any lofty goals or fulfilling his personal aspirations. He was just kind of… Existing. In limbo. He had a couple jobs to pay the rent, of course, but he’d pretty much just taken what positions were available, without much regard for his own personal interests. (Which he did actually have, contrary to common belief)

When he saw the ad for a personal assistant to the new royal scientist, he found himself intrigued. He doubted he’d get the position even if he did apply, of course, since there would be so many other applicants, but the ad said that she was looking for people who were good with quantum physics especially, and, well…

Quantum physics had been Sans’ special interest for a full decade, now. The equations had always fascinated him, along with the things they could accomplish. He’d read just about every textbook and journal he’d been able to get his hands on, and written a few things himself. (Nothing published, of course. He’d just wanted to better understand the material he was working with)

If the royal scientist was looking for a quantum physicist, he might actually have half a chance at this. According to the flyer, prospective applicants could take an aptitude test a week from then. Couldn’t hurt to make the attempt, right?

Sans spent the week reviewing the scattered information he’d been able to gather on the discipline from trips to the dump and various libraries throughout the underground. He also did his best to brush up on the math involved as well. He really hoped that this test would be entirely focused on theoretical physics, because Sans couldn’t engineer his way out of a wet paper bag with a gun to his head.

When the time came, his nervousness betrayed his excitement. He really wanted this. He could barely focus on anything the whole morning, to the point where he ended up locking his keys inside his house by accident on the way out. (Thank the angel for teleportation, right?)

As Sans entered the testing venue, he spared a glance for the other hopefuls. Some looked excited, a few looked like they’d been forced to attend, but most just looked pants-wettingly terrified. Jerry was there too, for some reason. He hated that guy.

“You look a lot calmer than most of the monsters here, hon. Feeling sure of yourself?” The clerk asked him politely. Sans shook his head, saying

“nah. i’m just better at hiding it,”

“Well, I’m sure you’ll do fine, dear,” They said, smiling at him. He returned it, and went to sit down until it was time for the testing to start, feeling more jittery than Paps on caffeine.

He hoped the clerk was right.

\--

Alphys was swiftly becoming aware of a problem with her plan. With each test she reviewed, it became more and more glaringly obvious that this probably wasn’t going to work as well as she’d hoped, because, apparently, there was not a single freaking monster down here who could do basic math.

Everyone had their addition and subtraction down pat, of course, the education system underground wasn’t that bad, but algebra and calculus? Complex geometry?

She might actually have to bring this up with Asgore. She’d realized, of course, that education in the underground was a bit lacking, but she’d never quite put together the equation of how few monsters were able to teach those subjects and how even fewer wanted to learn them. Not to mention the difficulty in accessing textbooks and scientific papers from the surface, which was just about the only way to get new information without having to rediscover the wheel for every little thing.

She was lucky that the royal scientist was a celebrity position, or it was possible that no one would have even applied. As it was, about a hundred monsters took the test, and she was beginning to think that if she wanted an assistant, she’d have to train them herself.

The point of this was to give her less work, not more! She had no time to play teacher for whatever kiss-up showed a bit of promise. Regardless, she was desperate, so she put the applications that showed at least a willingness to learn aside.

It was with this mindset that she opened the test from “comic sans serif font”. The lack of capitalization (on their name, of all things!) had her pessimistic from the start. She’d excuse the use of font, since she knew full well that if she was named after one, she’d never shut up about it either, but not capitalizing your own name? What possible reason could there be for something like that?

As she actually looked at what they’d answered on each question, though, she felt hope bloom in her chest. This person… actually really knew their stuff. She’d put some pretty difficult questions at various points throughout the application, and they’d answered each one thoroughly and creatively.

She put the test aside, suspecting that she had her winner.

\--

Sans didn’t really expect to hear back from the royal scientist. A lot of people had applied, after all, so he doubted they could really afford the expense of sending a letter to every tester. Paper was pretty pricey underground, after all.

So when he got a letter in the mail with a return address of “the lab” he got a little excited. It didn’t mean he’d been selected, of course. It was entirely possible they’d decided to send letters to everyone who managed to clear some margin, or something.

...Or he’d done so badly they’d felt the need to ban him from ever doing science or math again, but that seemed just a bit unlikely. On that note, he sat on the edge of his mattress and opened the letter.

...

...Sans had been accepted for the position of assistant to the royal scientist, and was to go to the lab at his earliest convenience if he was still interested. 

He wasn’t freaking out. He totally wasn’t. His hands were repeatedly running over the letter as if to ascertain its veracity and his grin was so wide it threatened to exit his skull entirely and run away to join the circus, but he wasn’t freaking out.

Sans grabbed his nicest outfit, which was coincidentally also the one he’d worn to testing, (a blue jacket over a miraculously unstained white shirt, and basketball shorts, let no one call him a fashionista) and set out.

\--

Given that the monster Alphys had sent the letter to lived about twenty minutes from the lab, and the letter had to actually get to them before they could read it and come to accept the position, she was startled to hear a knock on the door only half an hour after the post had left.

She opened it to discover… a skeleton in a hoodie and basketball shorts, looking like they’d just won the lottery. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected from someone named after comic sans, really. Assuming that this was the applicant, of course, which she was slightly doubtful over, since, again, not enough time had elapsed since she’d sent the letter for them to arrive unless they could run at the speed of one of the cars from the surface.

“A-Are you Comic?” they visibly winced.

“yeah, but i go by sans. i find my first name’s a bit too…” they winked “comical,” Alphys narrowed her eyes. Puns? Absolutely unacceptable.

“Well, Comic, why don’t you come in?” Their eyes widened.

“please just call me sans, i’m begging you, i hate my first name so much,”

“I-If you p-promise not to make any p-puns,” 

“i think i’d dust on the spot,” Alphys rolled her eyes.

“This is going to be just w-wonderful, I can tell,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alphys is a bit more confident in this since the amalgamates haven't happened yet, so her imposter syndrome isn't quite as intense as it is by the time Frisk shows up.  
> I used gender neutral pronouns for Sans in the last bit because Alphys doesn't know his yet, and it's from her perspective.


	2. An Empty Apartment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An argument occurs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I waited so long to post this! I kept telling myself I was going to write more.

Sans snapped his fingers, and a box disappeared. The motion wasn’t strictly necessary for him to activate his magic, but he loved the sound of it, loved the sharp click that sounded between his fingers as he moved them apart.

“I-I’m not r-really sure why you h-had me come here, w-when y-you…” Alphys waved a hand, indicating the space where the box had just been. She sat on a mattress, one of the few pieces of furniture that still occupied the small apartment. Her tail thumped rhythmically against the bare cloth. 

“eh, moral support, right? it’d be pretty boring to just sit here and teleport boxes when i could be chatting with a friend, y’know?” He paused for a moment, weighing his next words carefully.

“and, when i’ve been alone, my mind just goes back to-” He didn’t finish the sentence, but he didn’t need to. Alphys was already nodding.

“I- I see them everytime I c-close my e-eyes,” She hugged herself, curling inward as if to ward off a sudden chill.

“You s-shouldn’t, y-you shouldn’t blame yourself f-for what happened,” Sans’ eyes widened slightly, and he turned to face her fully, a half scripted phrase already falling from between his teeth.

“who says i am?” His expression was warm and reassuring, not a hint of deceit to be found.

Unless you were Alphys, of course, who had worked with him long enough to be able to tell when his words were as fake as his smile.

“D-Don’t try to pull that crap w-with me, Comic,” She said, and narrowed her eyes, before sighing and continuing.

“R-Really, though. I w-was the one in c-charge of the p-project. It’s m-my fault,” Now it was Sans’ turn to look annoyed, subtle as the expression was.

“you’re not the one who kept injecting,”

“I’m t-the one w-who signed o-off on it,”

“only ‘cause i badgered you,”

“D-didn’t exactly t-take m-much,”

“it was still me who pressured you into it,”

“At l-least y-you didn’t lose t-the damned f-flower,”

“you couldn’t have known it’d run off,”

“Y-You couldn’t have k-known w-what would happen if w-we kept i-injecting,”

“neither could you,” At this, the two stopped. Alphys touched a claw to the bridge of her nose, pushing up her glasses from where they’d sagged a bit during the short-lived argument. Sans fidgeted idly with his zipper for a moment.

“We’re b-being kinda d-dumb, a-aren’t we?” Sans’ grin gained a wry edge.

“probably,” He teleported the last box in the apartment, and Alphys stood from the mattress to allow him to move it without disturbing her.

“Y-You b-better keep in t-touch,” Sans chuckled.

“heh. it’s funny. that’s what i was gonna say,” He vanished the mattress, and the apartment was bare save for the two of them.

“don’t ghost me, k? i’d miss anime night,”

“I w-won’t. I have t-to get s-someone to help m-me figure out how t-to talk to U-Undyne, right?”

“oh, for sure. did i tell you how my brother made friends with her the other day?”

“Only a m-million times,”

The pair exited the apartment, never to re-enter. It felt like the beginning of something.

Neither seemed to spot the golden flower growing in a shadowed alcove near the entryway, and a few moments later, it left as well.


End file.
